The Wisdom of Love strives to challenge the discrepancy between the way source texts relate to love and the way they are perceived to do so, introducing readers to the extensive, profound, and significant treatment of love in the Jewish canon. This is a book about love, not its repression; it is an opportunity to study the wisdom of love, not those who lack such wisdom and are unlikely to ever acquire it. The Wisdom of Love brings about not only a change in perception—recognizing the existence of the wisdom of love per se—but also the realization that this wisdom is the very foundation of religious wisdom as a whole, rather than a peripheral branch of it. All love derives from a single source: love between man and woman. It is from this source that all other manifestations of love, such as love of God, love of wisdom, and love of one’s fellow, draw their meaning.

Naftali Rothenberg is a senior research fellow and Jewish Culture and Identity Chair at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Rothenberg also serves as the town Rabbi of Har Adar, Israel. He has authored and edited ten books.

Praise

Rabbi Dr. Naftali Rothenberg of the Van Leer Institute of Jerusalem explores another religious approach to these issues in The Wisdom of Love: Man, Woman and God in Jewish Canonical Literature. He finds that the Bible, Talmud, Midrash and halacha (Jewish law) devote considerable attention to love and that much of rabbinic tradition treats love’s spiritual and physical aspects without inhibition. His study exposes a cognitive dissonance between what the Jewish canon says and what we expect our holy texts to say. The book celebrates love as a classical rabbinic ideal, and it is as rare as it is refreshing: scholarly, yet eminently readable; spiritual, yet sober.

— Eugene Korn, editor of Meorot: A Forum for Modern Orthodox Discourse and American, director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation in Efrat, Israel

Table of Contents

PrefaceIntroduction: Love in the Canonical Literature: Dealing with Cognitive Dissonance

Section I: The Androgyne Unity; Separation; Desire and Unity

1. The Androgyne Myth According to Plato2. Male and Female Unity, Primoridal Sin and Rebellion against the Gods3. In the Midrash: Androgynous Adam4. In the Kabbalah: An Eternal / Divine, Spiritual and Human Androgyne 5. The Rebirth of the Androgyne: Judah Abravanel Cites Plato and Moses6. Summary: The Power of Myths

Section II: A Profile of the Sage of Love

1. Introduction: The Philosopher as Sage of Love2. The Love of Rachel3. The Sage of Love “Rescues” the Song of Songs4. Practice and Theory in the Wisdom of Love5. The Sage and Temptation6. Love Thy Fellow as the Basis of Human Socialization7. Optimism Out of Love8. Ultimate Love9. The Orchard of Love10. Summary: The Universal Sage

1. Introduction: Philo and Sophia2. The Sage's Desire3. Love as Universal Phenomenon4. The Paradox of Abstract Perception5. Love and Beauty6. When and Where was Love Born?7. Unconsummated Love

Section IV: Written For Men by Men: Feminist Revolution and Innovation in the Canonical Sources

1. Introduction: Identifying revolutionary and Innovative Approaches in cultural Sources2. A Monogamous Message to a Polygamous Culture3. Onah: The Obligation to have Sex for Pleasure4. The Love Relationship as Perfection: The End of Male Exclusivity5. Summary: Innovation and the Norm

Section V: Contrast and Harmony in Married Life: On Spirituality and Abstinence

1. Introduction: the Dualistic Approach2. Marriage and Intellectual Growth: Help or Hindrance?3. Categorical Rejection: Abstinence is Punishable by Death! 4. The Dilemma of Abstinence for Individuals on a High Spiritual Plane5. Moses' Abstinence 6. Abstinence: A Precondition for Love in the Philosophy of Rabbi Bahya Ibn Pakuda7. Rabbi Judah Halevi’s Rejection of Abstinence8. Summary: Maintaining Balance